The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-11-30
The New Congress.

The session of the fiftieth congress,
which begins next Monday, will be re-
markable from the nearly equal strength
of the two parties in both houses. In
the senate the republicans will have a
bare majority, the score standing
thirty-eight to thirty-seven, with one
Observation-Disclosures of Virginia,
who usually acts with the republicans.
The seat of Turpie, the new democratic
senator from Indiana, will probably be
contested by Senator Harrison. If the
seat should he given to the latter the
republicans would have two majority
without Riddeberger.
The official list of house members
shows one hundred sixty-eight demo-
Gratis, one hundred fifty-three republic
cans and four indepeudents-the latter
being Anderson of Iowa, Nichols of
North Carolina, Hopkins of Virginia
and Smith of Wisconsin. The first
named will probably act with the demo-
Gratis on most partisan questions, but
the attitude of the others cannot be
foreshadowed. The democrats have
small and uncertain majority to depend
upon, and will have much trouble I'M
less they can compromise their differ
ences on the tariff and some other
questions.
The directory of the new congress
shows one hundred forty-one new men,
bers, including the new senators. OF
the new members forty-nine are law
yers, two clergymen, four editors and
two set themselves down as literary
men. Their average age is forty-five
years. Thirty-eight have served in the
legislatures of their states and thirty
two are college graduates. The oldest
member will be General Vandever of
California, who is in his seventy-frst
year; the youngest is James Phelan of
Tennessee, who is thirty-one. There
are nine eX-confederates among the
new members and thirteen Union
soldiers. Most of the new members
were born in the states they represent.
There are some queer personal things
to be found among the biographies. A
Pennsylvania member tells how his
grandfather Clipped in $4,000 with
Robert Morris to help Washington fit
out his army; western member says
he has five children and gives their
names and ages, from which it is learned
that Arthur is the youngest, and his age
one year and two months; a southern
member says his mothers name was
Nancy Smith and her father one of the
pioneers of the mountainous regions in
his state; another says he married
Cora Swatson June Is, 1885, and was
endorsed by his county convention as
candidate for congress on the same
day; another member remembers to
describe his personal appearance, say
ing that he is "sX feet tall, weighs two
hundred ten pounds and has soft
auburn hair and blue eyes" There
are two Mexican war veterans-Rce of
Minnesota and Hare of Ohio. There
is one ex-senator in the new house,
Buckalew of Pennsylvania, and two
eX-governors-Sena Davis of Min
nesota and Governor Gear of Iowa.
Among the laboring men are Senator
Blodgett of New Jersey, who began
life as an apprentice in the Amoskeag
engine works; Congressman Nichols of
North Carolina, who served six years
as an apprentice in printing-office
Henry Smith of Milwaukee, who is a
millwright and was elected by the peo-
pies labor party; and J. b. White of
Indiana, who was a calico printer in
Scotland and has been a tailor for many
years in this country, although he is
now manufacturer of carriage wheels.